Sunday, July 31, 2011

Left over rice, is very hard to consume it doesn't taste good especially when you refrigerate it. Here I give you two tips to make the left over rice just like a fresh rice.
1. When you refrigerate the rice , it becomes a kind of hard and unable to have even if you microwave it. So, yo just sprinkle some water and microwave it. You will be surprised to see it turns out that good.

2. When you cook fresh rice in a rice cooker, Just add left over rice on top of it and close the lid, keep it warm and have after 10-15min. It will taste and look like a fresh rice.

Directions:
Mix Onions, tamarind pulp, salt to taste, rechili powder/pepper powder in 250ml of water and keep aside.
Now prepare the tempering. Grind green chili, few onions, garlic cloves and very few cumin seeds together and keep aside. heat 2tbsp of oil in a pan and add cumin seeds, mustard seeds wait until they splatter and add grinded green chili mixture, curry leaves and saute until the raw smell disappears. Finally add little turmeric and saute 1min and turn off the stove add this tempering to tamarind mixture and mix well. Garnish with cilantro.
Enjoy with rice.
Hope you like my recipe.

Oakra or bendakaya is my father's favorite vegetable. We used to have thrice in a week, when I was in India, I never used to like this vegetable, my mother used to prepare another curry for me. But she used to say " Bendakaya tinte telvi vostundi" means "Oakra is brain food, that increases intelligence".

Selenium(Se) - An antioxidant that helps neutralize free radicals, thus preventing cell damage and reducing the risk of cancer and other diseases. Mushrooms contain more selenium than any other form of produce.

Potassium(K) - An extremely important mineral that regulates blood pressure(BP) and keeps cells functioning properly. A large portobello mushroom is said to have more potassium than a banana.

Low levels of fat, calories, and sodium & No cholesterol: Main benefit of mushrooms

Quick, easy, healthy and handy recipe is a great idea for the mother's/ wifes/ working women for their lazy kids/ hubby's. My hubby does his breakfast in car while driving to office. These kind of recipes are very healthy and handy for the people like my hubby. Many mornings he went without having breakfast, which is very bad habit. Now I no more entertain such unhealthy habit, so I planned to make some healthy and handy foods and this is one of them.

Thursday, July 28, 2011

Cholesterol is a type of fatty substance, also known as a lipid which is a type of fat in blood. You get cholesterol from eating certain type of fatty foods.

Your body also makes cholesterol. In fact, cholesterol is a major component of cell membranes and is made by the cells of most organs and tissues in the body. Your body also uses cholesterol to make bile salts, which help aid in digestion.Smaller amounts of cholesterol are used to make harmones and vitamin D and other substances.

Cholesterol is carried in the blood by special substances called lipoproteins. Low density lipo protein, or LDL, is known as "BAD" choloesterol. High density lipoprotein or HDL is known as "GOOD" cholesterol. These two types lipids along with triglycerides, makeup the three main parts of your cholesterol.

The three main categories of fats(Lipids) are:

HDL, LDL and Triglycerides in our body.

What are healthy cholesterol levels?

To help yor risk from heart disease, eat healthy foods that are mentioned in the table, the tables shows the foods that we have to avoid and the foods we have to consume.

Hope this info is helpful to all of you, I got this info near the doctor whom I had seen recently, thought this info will be helpful to every one and thought of posting it. Eat healthy and Stay healthy!!!!!!

Rajma/kidney beans are a very good source of cholesterol-lowering fiber, as are most other beans. In addition to lowering cholesterol, kidney beans' high fiber content prevents blood sugar levels from rising too rapidly after a meal, making these beans an especially good choice for individuals with diabetes, insulin resistance or hypoglycemia. When combined with whole grains such as rice, kidney beans provide virtually fat-free high quality protein.Kidney Beans nutritional profile: source: WHFoods

Directions:
Soak kidney beans in water for atleast 1hr and cook them in a cooker by adding very little salt for 3 whistles. Let them cool down in a cooker and later remove the lid. If you do not have cooker, microwave them or cook them in a vessel with water on a stove with closed lid. Be careful, do not over cook them. Now heat 2tbsp of oil in a pan and add cumin seeds and mustard seeds(optional), wait until they splatter then add half of the onions and fry them till they turn transparent under medium flame. Now add green chili & garlic and fry them. Add cooked kidney beans and saute them nicely.

Finally add remaining onions, aamchur powder little red chili powder and salt to taste. You can garnish with cilantro also. Now the rajma is ready to serve.

Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Who do not love doughnuts?They are my favorite. Why the most delicious foods are always rich in calories? this question always strikes my mind. If they are low calorie food I would have enjoyed them every day. I just started making this doughnuts, just at the end my hubby came from work and we both started munching on them, we were so busy in munching that I just forgot to take the pics of my lovely doughnuts. I just took them at the end. they came out really yum!!!! here is the lovely recipe for all of you!

Add the yeast over the warm water, and let stand for 5-10 minutes until they become foamy.

Take a large bowl, mix together the yeast mixture, milk, sugar, salt, eggs, shortening, and 2 cups of the flour.

Mix for a few minutes at low speed by stirring with a wooden spoon. Beat in remaining flour 1/2 cup at a time, until the dough no longer sticks to the bowl.

Knead, until smooth and elastic. Place the dough into a greased bowl, and cover with wet cloth. Set in a warm place to rise until double. Dough is ready if you touch it.

Turn the dough out onto a floured surface, and gently roll out to 1/2 inch thickness.

make very small balls out of the flour. Let doughnuts sit out to rise again until double. Cover loosely with a damp cloth.

For Icing: Melt butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Stir in confectioners' sugar and vanilla until smooth. Remove from heat, and stir in hot water one tablespoon at a time until the icing is somewhat thin, but not watery. Set aside.

Heat oil in a deep-fryer or large heavy skillet to 350F. Just slide doughnuts into the hot oil using a wide spatula.

Turn doughnuts over as they rise to the surface. Fry doughnuts on each side until golden brown. Remove from hot oil, to drain on a wire rack.

Dip doughnuts into the Icing while still hot, and set onto wire racks to drain off excess.

Tuesday, July 26, 2011

This is the flavorful recipe with the left over chapati/roti (Night dinner-Morning breakfast). You can do the same with corn/wheat tortilas. Before going to recipe, first I should tell you all about my sweet hubby, because of whom I've to try these kind of quick, easy, healthy and handy breakfast. Let me tell his best qualities,
1. He is very punctual (yeah! he will go to office at 8:15 though it is at 7:30)
2. He will get up very early (hehe!!! 7:00am)
3. He can look after his things on his own ( I'll just Iron his dress, keep it ready when he comes out of
bathroom, brush his shoe, arrange his office files and key's),
4. He will never miss his breakfast (yeah! he will have it only on weekends!!!!, In weekdays if I make
breakfast I'll just have to dump it!!!)
I think all the above qualities forced me to prepare these kind of handy recipes for breakfast, so that he can have it in car while driving to office. Now enough of my naughty hubby. Coming to recipe...

Monday, July 25, 2011

Flattened rice are called Atukulu in telugu. This easily digestible form of raw rice is very popular across Nepal, India and Banglaadesh and is normally used to prepare snacks or light and easy fast food in a variety of Indian cuisine styles, some even for long-term consumption of a week or more. It is known by a variety of names: Poha (Click here for poha recipe) or Pauwa in Hindi,Pohe in Marathi, Chindé in Bengali, Chira in Assamese, Phovu in Konkani, Chudaa in Oriya,Atukula ponai in parts of Bihar and Jharkhand , Pauaa/Paunva in Gujarat, and Chiura in Nepal, Bhojpur and Chhattisgarh.

Daddojanam- Yoghurt rice is a very traditional rice recipe in southern parts of India. It is served as a holy food(prasadam) in almost all the temples. World famous richest Temple Tirumala tirupathi offers this as one of the food to God and give this food as holy food to the devotees. I personally love this prasadam. Coming to the recipe.Ingredients:Curd/Youghurt-100grms/1 cupFlattened rice/poha/Atukulu-1 cupCarrot grated finely-1/4cupCucumber(kheera)-grated finaly-1/4cupOnions finaly chopped-1/4cupFor seasoning/tempering:Cumin seeds-1/2ts+1/2tsMustard seeds-1/2tsChana dal-1/2tsToor dal-1/2tsGinger-1/2 inchGreen chili-1 or 2 depending on how much hot you wantSalt to tastevegetable oil-2tsred chili-1

Directions:Note: In temples they do not use onion, cucumber, green chili & carrot. They use Black peppers instead of green chili. You can prepare the same dish with cooked rice as well.

Take a bowl and toss in curd, flattened rice, cucumber, carrot, onions $ salt to taste one by one and mix well. Add 1/2 cup water if you wish. Now keep this mixture aside.

Saturday, July 23, 2011

I love coconut rice, but this time I wanna make something with twist on it. So I thought to try kichidi this time. It came out really good with wonderful color. But let us see what are the benefits & good/bad about the coconut. Coconut and its coconut oil are high in saturated fats, even higher than butter and margarine. Several studies prove that it greatly elevates the LDL- bad cholesterol. However coconut oil is suggested as a replacement for hydrogenated vegetable oils. Although they both increase the bad cholesterol levels, coconut oil seems to also have a powerful HDL- good cholesterol boosting effect. Myristic acid found in coconuts that causes the increase in LDL and HDL accounts for about 19% of the fat in coconut. But it contains good amount of fiber too, that can help you in weight loss.

Take rice+ chana dal+ toor dalWash and add 2cups of coconut milk and 2 cups of water to the rice mixture and cook them like normal rice with little salt.

Now prepare seasoning mean while. For seasoning, heat 2ts of oil in a pan and add cumin seeds and mustard seeds after they begin to splatter add chana dal+ Moong dal. and saute until they turn light brown.

Now add green chili, fresh grated coconut, cashew nuts and saute them under medium flame till coconut is well cooked. Now add salt to taste and rice mix well.